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Book Review – The Paperback Badshah – Abhay Nagarajan

With so many aspiring authors around and seeing the decisions they are taking with respect to their careers is something which intrigues me and scares me at the same time. The Paperback Badshah came in with an interesting blurb. It’s a story about a guy, Raghu who leaves his career behind in his mission to write his first book. I had read a similar book by author S.V. Divvakar named Beaten By Bhagath. I somehow fail to understand that why Chetan Bhagat is kept as the centre point of these stories. Drawing inspiration from his achievements is one thing but following his path is plain simple stupid, in my opinion.

The protagonist, Raghu is 25 and is bored of his job as a financial advisor. His favourite author is churning out bestsellers after bestsellers and that inspired Raghu to leave everything aside on write a bestseller. The first step towards his newly found goal is to quit his job against the wishes of his family. His father never left any chance to mock him.

Raghu puts in his heart and soul in writing his book despite the laziness that creeps in plus a love angle to his life. Once he writes the manuscript for his book, The Paperback Badshah, then begins the real ordeal for him. Finding a publisher, marketing and promotions and ensuring that the book catches eyeballs. He slowly understands that it is not easy to be a best selling author.

Overall, the book worked for me in parts not as a whole. It loses track in between and gets boring at times. I felt like keeping it down but then in a hope to read something out of the box, I kept turning pages but this book ended up as a disappointment. The writing is simple and this book is an easy read. Pick it up if you are looking forward to read something light while you are travelling or on a weekend afternoon.